


it's nice to have a friend

by nonamebut



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst with a Happy Ending, Childhood Friends to Lovers, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Possible TW in End Notes, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:55:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22133653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonamebut/pseuds/nonamebut
Summary: Bad blood runs through Donghyuck's veins while Mark is more of a monster than anyone really realizes.Nothing, really, is ever as it seems.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 5
Kudos: 99





	it's nice to have a friend

**Author's Note:**

> haha *mark voice* it's been a while
> 
> i was supposed to finish and post this for spook fest last year but i ended up stalling bc it doesn't actually fit the curse prompt all that much ;u; anyway i kind of like it despite it being really late hehe it's me taking baby steps into the Sad Fic realm

The view of the courtyard has always seemed grander from the science building rooftop.

Just picture this: the late October sun, stretching and casting its spell on the waning trees, the soft stone paths, the gleaming surface of the outdoor pool. Turning everything golden.

From inside the school, a bell softly chimes. Below the students slowly trickle out.

Lee Donghyuck may have been gone for over a year but this scenery is still all too familiar. This whole sleepy town, really, is still all too familiar, everything sprawling the exact same way and in the exact same place.

He looks down, down, down. Before Donghyuck grasped onto the rust of the fence, hoisting himself up onto the barrier that's meant to fence in all potential jumpers, he had the craziest thought. That the roof wasn't really that high.

At the sound of a pattering one-two beat, Donghyuck closes his eyes. The door squeaks open; there's a soft gasp of breath.

Yes, even this boy—too familiar.

"This is not how I imagined this to go down."

The boy pants, and Donghyuck can't help the way his lips twitch upwards.

"Leaving so soon after you've finally—" there's a pause, a low groan "— _finally_ come back?"

Finally, Donghyuck turns to look. Lets himself _really_ look.

On the rooftop stands his longest, most treasured friend, his blue tie uncharacteristically loose and hair annoyingly tousled.

This could be the moment, if Donghyuck only let it happen.

"... Watch your step."

Donghyuck watches him hop around the magic field that took hours to cast. Just like that, Donghyuck's already lost, already gone on him.

"It's been a while, Donghyuck-ah."

This isn't how Donghyuck imagined Mark's _I missed you_ to go either. If he's being honest with himself, he never even thought he'd get the chance to ever hear Mark's voice again.

But there they are. And maybe Donghyuck could afford to listen, to stay, for just a little bit longer.

Because here stands Mark, eyes wild and bright and _hopeful_ , looking so out of breath. So out of it. He still smiles the way he did when he was fourteen and Donghyuck was thirteen and everything still made sense.

And Donghyuck—Donghyuck has always had a traitor of a heart.

His blood sings when Mark, wordlessly, stretches his hand. In Donghyuck's mind, familiar voices whisper in warning: _now be a good boy and take this chance to make up for all that you've done._

There's an opportunity waiting to be taken.

Donghyuck leans down and takes Mark's hand.

("Remember Hyeyeon?" Jeno asks as if they all weren't there that moonless night, when after all was said and done, she had simply cried and cried and cried. As if all of them didn't watch as she shimmered out of consciousness. Spirited away.

Donghyuck had looked so devastated. Hands shaking, heart breaking. Blood smeared all over his cheek, his chest. _Darling, none of this is your fault._

Jeno snaps his fingers impatiently. Or is the gesture out of nervousness? Whatever it is, it's only now that it's startlingly clear what his true intentions are, bringing Hyeyeon up again so soon after she's disappeared.

"Forget," he says, and his eyes shine with a magic that's been lying dormant in his veins for generations. "You won't remember Hyeyeon. Not anymore.")

The other kids haven't changed much, either. They still giggle and gossip the same way, all too interested in stirring up trouble—as long as it's not their own misfortune to take responsibility for.

Mark, as always, shuts everyone up whenever they so much as breathe in Donghyuck's direction. It's no secret that he hates it when they go on about Donghyuck and the Lee curse and how he's no good.

( _Don't stay near him_ , everyone whispers. And Donghyuck lets himself feel just a small sliver of happiness when the cruel words only make Mark draw closer.)

It's not like anything they say isn't based on the truth. Everyone in this town knows what happened to them, what they've done.

But Donghyuck doesn't have the heart to tell anyone off otherwise, so he just lets Mark do his thing.

"Everyone here is just... just so mean." Mark pouts and Donghyuck just wants to kiss it away. It's bittersweet, imagining how it must have been like for him in the time Donghyuck was gone. "They never know when to just mind their own fucking business."

Donghyuck laughs. Wants to say, _I know._ There hasn't been a day that's passed by without hearing students whispering behind their hands, saying something like: _oh, did you see how Mark almost lost his cool in class? You didn't hear about the way Mark spoke to Eunji, did you? Mark is so scary, what do I do if he smiles at me!_

The warmth of their joined hands would normally keep Donghyuck in check, but today he still glares over Mark's shoulder anyway.

It doesn't take much for the others to scatter, to skitter away. Just a little shift of his uniform sleeve, a brief peek of the white cloth bandaging his wrist.

He knows that if he's but a little bit dramatic, they can all stop gossiping about Mark completely and focus on him instead.

October always makes the town magic wary, after all. Everyone gets restless and all that dark, festering energy is bound to manifest somewhere. Donghyuck just wants to make sure that the bad luck doesn't end up being Mark's.

("No." Is he insane? Is he really suggesting this, now that they know how dangerous things could get? "There's no way I'm going to let you do this to me—"

Jeno, for once, snaps. "Fine." His energy pops and fizzes in the air, impatient. It's not hard to guess how he's feeling: how disappointed he must be, as someone who's been Donghyuck and Hyeyeon's best friend for just as long. How betrayed he must feel by it all.

So what? It's also hard not to shout. _You can take anything from me—any memory, even what I knew of Hyeyeon. But you can't make me forget Donghyuck._

"Fine," allows Jeno. He sighs. "Instead, forget yourself.")

Mark moans. His breath is hot on Donghyuck's neck.

Donghyuck presses Mark into the mattress. Like this, spreading Mark's thighs and pinning one of his wrists by his head.

Warm, too warm. Mark bites into Donghyuck's shoulder and _oh_ , it hurts.

Don't look. There are tears in Mark's eyes.

"I'm so sorry," Mark hiccups. Donghyuck hears Mark's fingers twist the sheets. "I never meant for you to find out—like this."

Donghyuck smiles weakly. "It's okay."

Mark cries out again. Louder, less restrained, the noise freeing itself all too easily from his throat.

Maybe it's a good thing no one else is in the house. The way they're shifting against each other, how the creaking sound of the bed echoes, and echoes—it's all too compromising.

The very suggestion that they'd ever get so intimate with each other makes a broken, sad laugh tumble out of Donghyuck's lips. _If only_ , Donghyuck mouths to himself.

No... It is a good thing. It's fortunate that no one can hear the way Mark fights against his nature, how he refuses to let the sum of all the town's bad luck gather within him and turn him into the monster everyone so fears.

But even like this—even when Mark's struggling to keep his humanity, losing his mind as he tries to hold the ugliest parts of himself back—Mark is still a better person than Donghyuck ever was, could be.

All he can really do right now is close his eyes. Hold Mark down. Be a good friend and keep the darkness from seeping through.

Sometimes the light can only do so much. It spills from Donghyuck's wrist, bleeding itself into intricate patterns, hardening into chains and shackles to keep Mark from leaving their bed, from leaving and hurting anyone else.

"I've got you." Donghyuck doesn't want to lose him, too. So he whispers, "it's okay, I won't let you turn."

And Mark just pulls him closer and closer, his arms tightly winding around Donghyuck's shoulders.

(Donghyuck leaves behind the strangest letter. It's hard to understand the context of the content, and despite all the questioning and pestering most especially sent Jeno's way, no one bothers to share why the boy really left.

In the letter, Donghyuck never explained any of the things that mattered. All he really said, at the end, was that he was sorry. That in the end, he didn't want to be the one who would hurt his best friend.

But why? It's maddening. _Donghyuck could never hurt me._

Despite all his light jabs, Donghyuck was always kind. Always managed to make everyone smile. _What a stupid, silly boy._ )

It's here, at the end of the road, where it splits off and leads to the dirt path to their family homes, that Donghyuck finally lets himself tell the truth.

He starts with the most important part. A long overdue confession that the both of them, finally, do nothing to stop.

"You make me do the stupidest things," Donghyuck concludes it all in a whisper. His hands shake but Mark only tightens his grip, his gaze imploring. "Whenever you're around I always end up doing the opposite of what I intend to do. But I guess that must mean I'm a fool that loves you, this much."

They both laugh. It's so quintessentially _Donghyuck_ , to be so teasing yet so fond at the same time.

Then Mark sighs, all the happiness spilling out of him with a heavy exhale. His eyes harden, just a little, as if angry for letting himself feel such elation.

"... I know."

And Donghyuck is surprised, but not for the obvious reasons. Of course his love is something anyone could see coming—a sun spot clearing up in the middle of a dark October afternoon much like this one.

But he never meant for Mark to know about why he was asked to come back.

Mark lets go and turns his gaze to their school shoes. "There's something I've kept you from doing, right?"

Donghyuck tries to reach for him again, comes closer in an attempt to maintain eye contact. Mark only allows his hand to be held in a shaky, loose clasp.

"I knew what you were supposed to do. Back then, that day on the rooftop." He takes a breath and closes his eyes. "I realized it when you had just. Looked at me."

Though his vision blurs, Donghyuck still makes out how Mark exposes the warm skin of his neck. Pointing out what everyone's been expecting to happen ever since Donghyuck came back.

He feels Mark's grip shift downwards, sliding past his palm and glancing at the edge of his sleeve, fingers tugging at the bandages that cover an eighteen year old curse.

"You don't love me. Not the way I want you to." Mark's voice is so, so small. "And that's fine. I just wish that you wouldn't lie to me, now that we've come to the end."

In moments like this, Donghyuck feels the brunt of the burden that his blood carries. The very thing that's always kept him alive is the same thing that has kept him unhappy and unwelcome everywhere he goes.

"But it's the truth!"

Donghyuck is many things: the most prodigal of sons, a not so self imposed outcast, and perhaps even a murderer, depending on how you look at things. But he is not a liar.

"I didn't say this to get you alone—to, to kill you. Like how you must have thought I was going to, all this time..."

Mark looks into Donghyuck's eyes and it's like that summer all over again. But Donghyuck knows better now, knows better than he did back in 2017, so he takes a breath and swallows his pride.

The next thing Donghyuck confesses is something he should have brought up on that rooftop.

"Mark. You don't have to believe me... when it comes to my feelings. But please don't ever doubt this: I'm not going to let anything happen to you." _This stupid town has taken too much from us already._ "But—but it's not safe for us here. Let's run away."

("Donghyuck's back?"

Jeno doesn't have the chance to confirm anything; he's left alone in the classroom before he can even say a: _Careful, I think he was sent here for you._ )

It would be a lie to imply that no one bothers to look for them. But would the opposite still be true?

Not that it matters. What really matters is this: on a cold October morning, the weak sunlight spills through the worn curtains and signals a new day. Imagine, if you will, two boys curling into each other, waking up the best way they know how.

The rusty squeak of a bed, in protest. Tired out from the night before.

A little bit over a year has passed since they came here, hand in hand. But Seoul is a lot less scarier when you get to face it with the person you trust the most.

Donghyuck would know.

"You'll be working til late tonight, hm?" Mark leaves a gentle kiss on a fading bruise below Donghyuck's ear. He straightens, as if suddenly remembering himself. "I'll pick you up, okay? Just text me when you're out."

"I will." Donghyuck pinches the soft skin of Mark's waist. He pouts and wills Mark to read the fucking mood.

What really matters is not the bad luck, the bad blood. Not the burden.

It's the way Mark holds him, his touch trailing fire up his spine. The way he licks into his mouth, how Mark cradles the back of his head. It's just—it's just Mark.

".. Hey." Overwhelmed with this feeling, Donghyuck says, "It's nice to have a friend."

Mark snorts. "A friend. Right."

Donghyuck squirms when Mark sticks a cold palm under his shirt. He feels warmth spread from all the places they touch, reminding him of everything they've done.

"Yeah. A best friend."

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! :)
> 
> this is lowkey a knk au (or at least, what i remember from the anime) and it's most obvious in the first scene because i used a scenario from the anime. it comes across as a suicide attempt though in actuality it was a trap for donghyuck to supposedly k*ll mark.
> 
> there are implications of self harm because of the description of bandages on donghyuck, though the bandages are there due to the nature of his power. this is also a reference to the anime since both mirai and donghyuck wield their blood as weapons. (there's no explicit description of blood but it's referenced two times.) there's also a scene that's meant to come across as strange sexual content at first but eventually ends up being donghyuck restraining mark from turning bad.
> 
> still not sure if this fic is too vague or just the right amount understandable... it's my first attempt at something of this nature so i'd appreciate any tips for tagging (as well as any comments/reactions in general hehe) <3 if u actually made it here omg god bless thank u so much again <3


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